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Thursday, 21 August 2014

Savannah Churchill born 21 August 1919

Savannah
Churchill (August 21, 1919*, Colfax, Louisiana – April 19, 1974, Brooklyn, New
York) was a successful American singer of pop, jazz, and blues music in the
1940s and 1950s. (*some sources state 1920).

Savannah Valentine was born in August of 1920 in
southern Louisiana. At a young age her family moved to Brooklyn, New York.
During her formative years she was a prized member of her church choir. While
still a teenager she married David Churchill and soon had children, and did not
harbor any desire to pursue a career in music. That soon changed because of a
personal tragedy when her husband was killed in an automobile accident.

Now faced with raising two young children,
music seemed to be her salvation. In the early nineteen forties she became the
featured vocalist with the orchestra of Benny Carter with whom she made her
first recordings on the Capitol label,including her first hit "Hurry,
Hurry".

In 1945 she signed with Manor Records, and
that year "Daddy Daddy" reached # 3 on the R&B chart. Two years
later she had her only R&B # 1 with "I Want To Be Loved (But Only By
You)", which topped the charts for eight weeks. The record was billed as
being with vocal group The Sentimentalists, who soon renamed themselves The
Four Tunes. Subsequent recordings with The Four Tunes, including "Time Out
For Tears" (# 10 R&B, # 24 pop) and "I Want To Cry", both in
1948, were also successful.

Billed as "Sex-Sational", she
performed to much acclaim, and appeared in the movies Miracle in Harlem (1948)
and Souls of Sin (1949). She toured widely with backing vocal group The
Striders, including a visit to the London Palladium in 1951 and Hawaii in 1954.
From 1949 she recorded with Regal, RCA Victor and Decca Records. "Shake A
Hand" was her last chart entry in the spring of 1953. In 1956 she was one
of the first artists signed to the Argo label, set up as a subsidiary to Chess
Records. Sadly her time in the limelight was coming to an end. The fickle
market had moved on, sentimental ballads were going out of fashion and male
vocal groups were busy establishing themselves as headline acts in their own
right.

Tragedy struck later in 1956 when a drunk in
the audience at the Midwood Club, Brooklyn fell out of a balcony directly on
top of her, breaking her pelvis and causing long-term debilitating injuries
from which she would never fully recover. She was still able to record, and in
1961 managed a session for Jamie Records, for which she recorded her debut
album "Time Out For Tears" featuring remakes of her 1940's hits and covers
of other r&b numbers, but, although the voice was still intact, the
arrangements were uninspired and lacked the sensuous nature of her best work.

Savannah
smoked cigarettes for many years as did most people during her heyday and later
she developed cancer of her esophogus, which permanently ended any
possibilities of singing. The operations for treating the cancer meant she was
in and out of the hospital many times over the years. However, later she fell
down the stairs and broke her hip, which landed her back into the hopital where
she developed pneumonia and died in 1974, at the age of 53.(Info edited mainly
from Wikipedia & Audrey Churchill)

1 comment:

1. Savannah Churchill & The Sentimentalists - I Want To Be Loved (2:54)2. Savannah Churchill & The Sentimentalists - Foolishly Yours (2:55)3. Savannah Churchill & The Five Kings - I Can't Get Up The Nerve To Kiss You (2:41)4. Savannah Churchill & The Five Kings - Let's Call A Spade A Spade (2:56)5. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - Is It Too Late (3:10)6. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - Time Out For Tears (3:13)7. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - I Want To Cry (2:47)8. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - I'll Never Belong To Anyone Else (2:33)9. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - The Things You Do To Me (2:44)10. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - The Best Of Friends (2:27)11. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - All Of Me (2:26)12. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - Would You Hurt Me Now (2:36)13. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - Savannah Sings The Blues (2:48)14. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - I'll Never Be Free (3:07)15. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - Can Anyone Explain (3:14)16. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - The Devil Sat Down And Cried (2:24)17. Savannah Churchill & The Striders - Changeable You (2:49)18. Savannah Churchill & The Striders - Ain'tcha Glad I Love You (2:33)19. Savannah Churchill & The Striders - Once There Lived A Fool (2:28)20. Savannah Churchill & The Striders - When You Coma Back To Me (2:30)21. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - I Don't Believe In Tomorrow (2:24)22. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - It's No Sin (2:46)23. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - In Spite Of Everything You Do (2:40)24. Savannah Churchill & The King Odom Four - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (2:07)25. Savannah Churchill & The Ray Charles Singers - Last Night I Cried Over You (3:07)26. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - The Gypsy Was Wrong (2:28)27. Savannah Churchill & The Four Tunes - They Call Me A Fool (3:04)

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I just love nostalgia, especially music from the 1920's to the 1960's.
I also present a radio show "Gems From The Vaults" on Angel Radio.
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